A young sportsman just back from a hunting trip in India was criticizing
the efforts of the missionaries there. He said that in all the months he was there
he never saw any good they were doing. It was all a useless waste of money and
effort. A returned missionary overheard him and asked him a question: “While
you were in India did you see any of those lions and tigers we hear so much
about?” He responded, “Indeed I did. I saw many of them.” The missionary
then added, “I spent about 7 years in India but in all that time I never saw any
lions or tigers, but I saw much important work being done by the
missionaries.”
The point is clear, men see what they are looking for. There is
much even on the level of the visible that men miss because they have no eye for
it. Their interests capture their vision and monopolize it, and this blinds them
to the reality of all that lies beyond the narrow realm of self-interest. Lichtze,
the Chinese philosopher, told of a man who went into a shop that
sold gold. He grabbed some and ran. The police easily arrested him and asked
him how he could be so foolish as to try and rob in broad daylight before all of
those people. The thief replied, “When I reached for the gold, I saw only gold, I
didn’t see any people.” His greed for gold blinded him to the reality of the
visible world that ordinarily would have prevented such folly.
If men can be blind even to the visible world, then it is no cause for wonder
that they cannot see the invisible. It would seem by the very definition of the
word invisible that it would be impossible for anyone to see it. But Paul speaks
of looking at the unseen and in Heb. 11:27 we read that Moses endured “…as
seeing him who is invisible.” In Rom. 1:20 Paul says the invisible nature of God
has been clearly revealed in the things he has made. Paul is again in the realm
of paradox. How can we see the invisible? It means that we see it by means of
the visible, which we can see, but we see behind the visible to the invisible cause
for it to be. It is being aware of the more than the visible.
The first thing we need to do is recognize the reality of the invisible. This
should not be hard in a day in which even science is preoccupied with the
unseen. Atoms, forces, waves, and rays innumerable are invisible, but are the
tools science works with every day. Even materialists recognize that the
greatest powers man knows of are invisible. Behind visible phenomena are
invisible forces. It is the unseen magnetic pole that controls the compass needle.
Invisible wind forces can cause planes to crash even though nobody can see
them coming. We can see acts of good and evil, but we cannot see the invisible
forces and motives behind them. It is the ability to grasp the reality of the
unseen forces behind history that enables the Christian to enter into the
purpose of God for history.
Man has the capacity of dual drive in the motor of his mind. He can chug
along on the road of life in low gear and see only the reality of the ruts, mud,
detours, and dead ends, or he can, by the grace of God, shift into high and glide
down the superhighway of the spiritual with all of its fuel stations of faith,
motels of meaning, and visions of eternal values. Those who receive Jesus as
Savior can travel along sky line drive and catch glimpses of the city of God.
Now this may sound like unrealistic mysticism of no practical value. We need
bread and butter food for our souls and not fancy cotton candy visions spun
out of a hyper-active imagination. This would be a valid objection if all of
reality was on the level of the visible, but since the Bible teaches that the
majority of reality is on the level of the invisible, it will be my challenge to show
that nothing is more relevant and practical than the ability to see the invisible.
It is the key to the effective Christian life to be able to see the invisible. It is
the very essence of worship. Herman Hagedorn wrote,
Lift up the curtain: For an hour lift up
The veil that hold’s you prisoners in this world
Of coins and wines and motor-horns, this world
Of figures and of men who trust in facts;
This pitiable, hypocritic world
Where men with blinkered eyes and hobbled feet
Grope down a narrow gorge and call it life.
One has not really begun to live until he begins to look, not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for these alone are the
things that last forever. What is the practical value Paul gained by focusing is
eyes on the invisible? In verse 16 we see that Paul’s awareness of the reality
and value of the unseen made him an optimist in spite of the discouraging
circumstances he faced. We faint not; we do not lose heart, and we never give
up says Paul, even though our bodies are weary and our health is broken. Out
outer man is perishing, but our inner man is being renewed every day. It was
his vision of the invisible that kept him pressing on even unto death in the
service of his Lord.
the eyes of flesh see the cross it is all negative and awful, but to the eye of
faith it was a glorious act of love that brought more joy into the world than any
other act in history. Jesus saw the end results of the cross and that is why he
could endure it. It was the joy of all eternity that kept him on the cross. The
invisible kept him there where the visible was all seeming evil to be avoided.
Seeing the invisible was the key to our salvation. We all need this vision to
endure the sufferings of this world. Paul’s body was heading down hill and he
had many problems. He knew his physical body was decaying and wasting
away, but he saw beyond the body to the eternal soul that would be with his
Lord forever, and this gave him the energy and the joy to press on.
If we look only on the level of the visible we can get discouraged by this
world of suffering. We need to look through it to the greater world of the
invisible. You do not buy a telescope to look at, but to look through to what is
greater than it is. So also when we come to the Lord’s table we do not look just
at it, but through it to the invisible behind it. The eye of flesh sees only the
broken bread and juice. But the eye of faith sees the invisible values which are
represented by these elements. It sees the sacrifice they represent and the offer
of forgiveness they represent. It sees them as the gift of God that can give us
assurance of eternal life. They are symbols of what is not visible. It is like the
flag. We cannot hang up a picture of patriotism, for it is an unseen value. But
we can put up a flag that is a visible symbol of that unseen love of country. So
these symbols are visible signs of invisible values that are of infinite worth.
They are trivial amounts of matter, but they represent what most matters for
all of eternity. They enable us to see the invisible love of God which is beyond
all understanding. These elements are not much to see, but if you see the
invisible they represent you are seeing the highest values in this universe.
Jesus was the master of seeing the unseen. It was not just on the cross, but in
every day life that he saw what others did not see. He did not just see the
measly widow’s mite. He saw a heart of gold in the widow. He saw a woman
being guided by love for the glory of God. What others were seeing was not
worth a mention, for it was what we would say, “mere chicken feed.” Jesus was
seeing what was beautiful while others saw what was pitiful. He was seeing the
invisible forces that motives people all the time. It was his ability to see the
invisible that made him unique among men.
Men who do unusual things are men who have a vision that others do not
see. They see possibilities that others cannot see. Columbus was highly honored
in Spain for his discovery of the new world. There was much jealousy, and
many were saying he had done nothing they could not have done. He knew
their thinking and took an egg from the dish and challenged them to stand it on
end. None could do it, but he took it and broke off one end and it stood easily.
They cried out that they could have done that. He replied, “Yes, if the thought
had struck you. And if the thought had struck you, you could have discovered
the new world, but it was I who had the vision.” Swift said, “Vision is the art of
seeing things invisible.”
Sakormoto was an old Japanese farmer who lived in a small hut on top of a
hill behind a little fishing village on the bay. He was known and loved by all in
the village, and people would often climb the hill to talk with him. One day the
water in the bay suddenly retreated and fish were flopping in the mud.
Everybody came running to pick up the fish in baskets. Up on the hilltop
Sakormoto saw what had happened and he was alarmed. He had seen this
happen once before as a child and knew that an earthquake had caused it, and
that soon a tidal wave would soon return. He had no time to run and warn
them and so he set his house on fire. When the people saw it they all ran up the
hill to save his home. When they got there he was just watching it burn. He told
them to never mind, but to look down on the bay. They all looked and saw a
tidal wave come it and destroy their whole village in a moment. They lost all,
but their lives were save by the old man’s sacrifice. Jesus did the same for us.
He saw we would all be swept into hell by the forces of evil, but he gave us the
hill of Calvary to look to and flee to in order to escape those forces, and instead
have the right to enter the kingdom of God. May God help us to see beyond the
visible and gain the values he wants us to have by seeing the invisible.
